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This is where you'll find my professional work (and some personal pieces as well).

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Sunday, October 21, 2007

MOBY DICK

Often, in the field of visual development, we work on projects that never see the light of day. That was the case with the ill-fated, Moby Dick (from the whale's point of view) at DreamWorks. At first, when I was asked to help develop it with directorsPaul & Gaëtan Brizzi, I though it was a joke. After all, it was a throw away line from Wag the Dog. But After working on it for a while, I came to realize it had a lot of potential...if done right. Unfortunately, the studio lost faith in the project, and shelved it.

Here's some work I did for the show. Sadly, this is probably the only place you'll ever see it.DigitalDigitalDigitalAcrylicLayout: Paul & Gaëtan BrizziDigitalDigitalLayout: Paul & Gaëtan BrizziAcrylic

Painter or Photoshop? I tend to use Photoshop more, but I do enjoy painter from time to time. I confess, I don't know painter all that well. I have a few favorite techniques which I use over and over, but I'm by no means an expert. I think what I like best about Painter is the ability (with some brushes) to put down paint and smear it in the same stroke. As far as I know, Photoshop can't do that. (If anyone's figured that out on Photoshop, please let us all know.

Dear PaulThese images are SO stunning. Congratulations on capturing the essence of the ineffable, sublime whale. We have a theatre company in Australia called "White Whale Theatre" and we were wondering rather audaciously if you would mind if we used one of your pics on our website. We would accredit it to you and link to your blog here?We are a not-for-profit theatre collective run by mad young Ahabs in their mid-20s, so there's no corporate power behind us, just a love for art, theatre and great writing.

Alright I have a question as to how you handled the digital painting of the underwater imagery? In particular the third image from the bottom. How did you approach this piece, it's such a different style of painting than what I am used to seeing, and I'm at a loss for trying to figure it out. Is it that you used a softer less crisp detail? Or a smear tool to pull the edges? My simple mind tells me . . . I'm clueless. I know a good magician does not tell his secrets but any help would be appreciated.

So wonderful! My Library (Johnson County Library) is hosting an online Moby-Dick discussion, and I would love to use one of your images for our blog header--would you give us permission to do so (and of course we'd attribute the image and link back to your work)?The Moby-Dick discussion will launch in January and it's related to our courier truck ad campagin seen here on flickr.

I thought that you might want to know that someone has stolen one of your “Moby Dick” images and is putting it on T-shirts to sell (the one with Moby rearing up and overturning the whale boat). I found this on Flickr today and immediately recognized it, as I’m an artist who paints whales and dolphins and I’ve done many portraits of Moby myself over the years, so I’m always looking at how other artists interpret the story and I really loved your sketches when I found them a couple of years ago. To see what I’m talking about, go to http://www.flickr.com/photos/49464559@N07/with/5038374229/ . I hope that you can find a way to get in touch with this guy and get him to stop.

It's happened again. Now an eBook publisher has stolen the same image and used it as the cover for an eBook version of the novel. My guess is that they just found it somewhere on-line, with no clue as to the origins of the image, and didn't think twice about using it. The publisher is Dunda Books, but when I go to their main web site, all I find is a bunch of disclaimers and an email address, so good luck on tracking them down and putting a stop to this. The URL I'm sending to you is for buying it on Amazon; go to http://www.amazon.com/Whale-Dunda-Books-Classic-ebook/dp/B0062A3RY8 .

I am so incredibly impressed by your Moby Dick work. I am a high school English teacher, and Moby Dick is one of my favorite novels. Your work really brings the novel to life, and it is sad that Dreamworks shelved the project.